Measuring parameters associated with the performance of a website is a valuable function for determining various characteristics associated with the content. Content may include media files (e.g., audio, video, images, graphics, or a combination thereof), which may be delivered to an executable environment such as a web browser or web browsing application. However, conventional techniques for measuring web analytics are problematic and limited.
In conventional web browsing environments, performance characteristics (e.g., number of downloads, when a download starts/ends, length of download, type of content, file name, date/time, and others) are typically measured using a program written in JavaScript, enabling a “ping” or “callback,” which involves sending a small amount of data, typically sent as a set of data packets, back to the source (i.e., server) of a downloaded file. Characteristics such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, user agent, software version, operating system (OS) version, number of views, downloads, and other information about an end-user (i.e., client or destination) environment can be measured or gathered using conventional techniques. In conventional web browsing environments, when a web page is requested, a JavaScript program reports characteristics or metrics (“metrics”) about a requested file. However, other applications (e.g., media players) can run offline (i.e., not connected to a data network such as the Internet), which prevents data from being sent back to a server for purposes of callbacks and gathering metrics. Further, while some conventional techniques allow reporting from media playing environments when a data connection is re-established, metrics are not reported in real-time. Still further, conventional programming techniques such as JavaScript cannot be used to develop programs for monitoring, gathering, or reporting on metrics outside of a web browsing environment. For example, the number of times a media file is played cannot be tracked when played in a media player that does not have a data connection over which it can report metrics back to a server.
Other problems associated with conventional techniques for gathering metrics on media files involve inaccurate reporting. For example, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests are often inaccurate because HTTP request headers often include a source address that provides the address of a server and not the actual end user. Conventional techniques often report a network address that is not the actual end-user (i.e., client) address. Thus, conventional reporting and analytics software may erroneously report the source of a media file (i.e., server) as the destination and fail to identify the actual location or destination of a media file download.
Thus, a solution for verifying media file metrics without the limitations of conventional techniques is needed.